‘The Nowhere Girls’ by Carmel Harrington

Published by Headline Review,
29 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-0354356-5 (HB)

Two small girls, abandoned on a railway platform thirty years ago. The press dubbed them the Nowhere Girls at the time, but their origins have remained a mystery ever since. Their story is a gift for a talented investigative journalist, and it's a story Vega itches to go in search of and ultimately write. 

The Nowhere Girls does not take the conventional murder mystery path; in fact, murders, even deaths, are thin on the ground, and in all but one case, incidental to the plot. Instead, we follow Vega on her quest to find out who those little girls were, where they came from, why they were abandoned, and what happened to them as they grew to adulthood. That quest takes her from her home in Ireland across the Atlantic to picturesque Vermont on the eastern seaboard of the USA, then back to Ireland with a wealth of new information which ultimately leads her most of the way to the answers she seeks. It's as much a voyage of self-discovery as a work project, and along the way she rediscovers old friends and makes new ones, solves old mysteries and unearths buried ones.  

Her search involves characters like Apollo, the autocratic and amoral leader of a reclusive commune; and Estelle, vulnerable but clear-sighted, who escapes from his clutches. Senan, the overall head of the media organization Vega works for, is almost as authoritarian as Apollo, but his wilful daughter Caoimhe stands up to him. And then there's Cassie, the mother of the two girls, who becomes a focus of Vega's search for the truth; what happened to her? And why did she fail to return to collect the children as she promised she would? 

Through it all, Luka, Vega's warm-hearted boyfriend, is generous with both time and support; so is Kieran, her boss, the closest she has to a father; and Mama Lulu, head of an extensive family of maple farmers. All three of them play a large part in encouraging Vega towards a less solitary life; she has always been self-reliant, and reluctant to let people get under her skin. 

The Vermont maple farm contrasts with the sparse and comfortless commune, as does Vega's cosy Wexford cottage with Senan's luxurious mansion and the lavish hotel surroundings of an awards ceremony. Carmel Harrington is as skilful with location as she is with character; she doesn't waste words, but the background is visual and almost cinematic. 

In crime fiction terms, The Nowhere Girls is unusual, but no less gripping and page-turning for that. There's even a twist right at the end that the most avid mystery fan won't see coming.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Carmel Harrington lives with her husband Roger and two beautiful children Amelia and Nate, in Ireland. Their lives are full of stories, songs, hide and seek, Mickey Mouse, walks on the beach, tickles, kisses, chocolate treats and most of all abundant love. To make life even more perfect, she has now fulfilled a lifetime ambition to be a writer and a published author with HarperImpulse, a division of Harper Collins Publishers and a playwright. She believes in Happily Ever Afters, because that’s what happened to her. 

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.